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Sunday, August 28, 2011

Relax, what's your hurry....?

I am always alone, but at this moment I would prefer to be alone by myself."

thus saith Death to his (mortal) hired man, after having a brief brush with his own unexpected, and temporary, mortality.

in an attempt to remember what it is to relax, i'm holed up in my little row house, puttering in a very minor way, and lazing in a major way. a much anticipated trip to the mountains has fallen through, so i'm holidaying at home.... determined to do nothing responsible for 2 weeks. eat, drink and be merry, occasionally doing a few dishes and possibly sweeping the floor and taking out the garbage. basic maintenance only. no PROJECTS allowed, other than the very serious project of regaining some sanity in a life which has become far too overbooked with projects and responsibilities and obligations and the demands of others.

unfair to be hit betwixt the eyes with profundity when one is trying so hard to be narcissistic.

i'm holed up with a stack of Terry Pratchet novels, having recently abducted one from my goddaughter. i seem to be the only person i know who isn't already familiar with him, but if he's new to you, i highly recommend Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. i've printed off the

Discworld reading order guide for guidance, though there's no need, i'm told, to follow any order, as they all stand freely on their own.

summer is doing her last bright trot around the neighborhood; there'll be hard frost any morning now. thoughts run to inside activities... reading, cooking hearty soups and stews, creative things involving paper and ink and paint.... fabric and pins ..... yarn and finding a place to set up the loom..... honey and yeast.... too many possibilities, really....

and i wonder why i need to re-learn how to rest. even when i'm resting i'm thinking of ways to exhaust myself.

10 comments:

You may find this hard to believe but I've never read a Terry Pratchett novel. Now, because of you, I may have to investigate the phenomenon of Discworld. Hilarity is sadly missed in these strange days.

It's good you're taking some time off to simply relax and rejuvenate after all this time of ever increasing complexity and everywhere a needy cause. I bet there are times you wish you could clone yourself. Then again, I quite liked David Brin's idea of golems as described in his novel 'Kiln People' where he imagines a future when everyone can make temporary clay versions of themselves on a home copier. They can run errands, study for tests, and do all the boring things while your real self gets on with what you'd prefer to be doing. I'm sure it would have to be the real you who takes maestro for a walk though.

Ah yes, summer. The one thing I never would have guessed about Halifax is that 79F can really feel like 97F when the humidity is 97%. It's true I don't like the long dark of winter but I do prefer cool weather. May your winter be blessed with all you love about the season and in the meantime there's autumn.

su - i hope 'good night, irene' is appropriate and she's left your shores unscathed (the shores unscathed, not the hurricane).

i'm quite enjoying escaping to discworld... and coincidentally, the current volume involves golems... though not made on home copiers. i did fantasize about cloning myself once upon a time - especially when the kids were still home. now i just work on learning how to say 'no'. ...and remembering how to relax.... okay, so maybe i'm a slow learner, but i AM learning. Maestro, for one, is a good teacher.

summer has been astonishingly humid here this year... we're normally semi-arid with just enough rain to grow grain... and this year so unusually cool that people grumble about the heat if summer temps soar over +20C (in the low 70's F)

things i LIKE about winter....!? well, it IS preceded by autumn, which is glorious..... and far too short.... k, i'll confess you've seen through my disguise.... there may be a few bearable things about winter..... freshly fallen snow, big warm sweaters, warm new mittens and boots, watching the crazy dog romp in the snow, snowballs, snowmen, steaming mugs of delicious hot drinks, thick hearty soups and stews, .... but it only lasts a few weeks, then it's all very old and i'm ready for it to go away.

friends from the east coast tell me apples are a big thing there.... so i'm imagining you enjoying visits to orchards and produce from the farmer's market.... with seafood..... enjoy!

I did read all the Douglas Adams books long ago and liked the original Hitchhiker's but not the rest so much - although Dirk Gently was fun too. Mostly, I've tended to bury myself in hard science fiction novels whose premise is the human race getting beyond this difficult phase of the civilizing process. I have a feeling that's more of a joke than anything any humorist has come up with but I will read some Pratchett.

I'm glad to know the things you enjoy about fall and winter. I knew something was keeping you up there in north of sanity other than its balmy summer atmosphere.

If you'll email me your new address I may have something to send you as a tiny addition to your decor.

I love the Discworld books, so much humour, and science fiction in general, there's another author just like Terry Pratchett but his name escapes me just now, think it begins with R ? I usually just browse the library shelves till I find him. Terry Pratchett has been looking into human euthanasia recently and was part of a very moving documentary looking at why people choose to do this.

su - i'm just reading for escape right now, so silliness holds strong appeal... though there's a strong current of social commentary under Pratchett's jests. CBC radio ran the BBC's recordings of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy years ago. i enjoyed that even more than the books. my kids took in the HHiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie and said it was a huge disappointment. what's keeping me up north mostly is poverty. i can't afford to leave.

claire - i'll browse the 'R' aisles at the library and see what i come up with :0) ....it's a tough subject, euthanasia.... a good friend's surrogate mother chose to end her own life many years ago - she a very accomplished scientist who became terminally ill and didn't want herself and her loved ones to go through the suffering she knew was coming. i don't think any of us has the right to judge another's choices in a situation like that.

About Me

I'm a musician, living in northern Alberta, Canada. Suddenly and Unexpectedly unemployed, I'm re-thinking my lifestyle and priorities, looking forward to a simpler life focused on the things that enrich it.